CHILDREN’S DEVOTIONS FOR THE WEEK OF: 7/13-19/2008
LESSON TITLE: Simeon and Anna
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:25-38

THEME: God’s promises always come true.


Dear Parents…
Welcome to Bible Time for Kids! Bible Time for Kids is a series of daily devotions for children and their families. Our purpose is to supplement our Sunday morning curriculum and give you an opportunity to encourage your children to develop a daily devotional life. We hope you and your family will be blessed as you study God’s Word together.

This week in Children’s Church we learned about Simeon and Anna. God had made a very special promise to Simeon. The Holy Spirit had told him that he would not die until he beheld the Messiah. Then one day in the temple he got to see and hold the Messiah, Jesus. He learned that God’s promises always come true.

We can also know that God’s promises are always true for us. The Bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He will never change. Any promise that He ever makes to us we can count on Him fulfilling it. He is always true to His word! We will learn more this week about God’s promises.

The section of scripture that we studied was Luke 2:25-38. The following five devotions are based on either the scripture and/or the theme for Sunday’s lesson. As a starting point it would be good for you to review these verses with your children.

These devotions are designed to help you reinforce Sunday’s lesson throughout the week with your children, provide some more ideas for the application of God’s Word in your children’s lives and provide a tool to help in family devotions.

Obviously children at various age levels will respond to the devotional in different ways. You may want to add your own ideas to these to make them more age appropriate.
May the Lord bless you as you study His Word together!


Day One
Just Like God Said!
Text: Acts 27:25 -“Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.” Also read Acts 27:20-44

This week we are learning how that God keeps all of His promises. Have you ever been let down because someone has broken a promise to you? Or have you ever broken a promise to someone else? Because we are human and sometimes sin there may be times when either we will break our promise to others or someone else will break a promise to us. It’s not right for us to do that, but isn’t it comforting to know that with God all of His promises will never be broken. Every promise in the Bible has come to pass, and there are a lot of them! God has never made a promise in the Bible that hasn’t come true!

The Apostle Paul found himself in a very scary and dangerous situation when He had to trust in a promise from the Lord. He was a prisoner on a ship one time. He had been arrested because he told other people about Jesus. So a Centurion was taking him to Rome to stand before Caesar. On this trip a very bad storm came and it appeared that the ship would be destroyed and everyone may die. But the Lord gave Paul a promise.

An angel appeared to Paul and told him to not be afraid. He said that the Lord still had some plans for Paul and that he would make it to Rome to appear before Caesar. He also said that no one on the ship with him would lose their lives. So Paul told everyone else what the angel had told him. What a great opportunity for Paul to witness for Jesus, as they would see first hand how that God would take care of them. The ship did end up being destroyed in the storm, but God honored His promise. No one lost their lives! Just like God had said (verse 44). So when you read a promise for you in the Bible know that God will bring it to pass! Especially when something scary might be happening in your life.

• How has the Lord helped you in a difficult time?
• Have you seen God’s promises come true in your life? Tell about it.
• What would be a good thing to do the next time that you are afraid of something?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Caesar: The ruler over the Roman Empire during the New Testament times; a king.
Promise: Something that someone says that they will do. Keeping a promise means that you do what you say that you will do.


Day Two
Yes and Amen
Text: 2 Corinthians 1:20 - “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” Also read 2 Corinthians 1:19-22.

Joey was excited about the new boy that moved into his neighborhood. He went down to introduce himself and found out that his name was Steven. Steven was glad to meet a new friend and invited Joey to come back over at 3:00 to play with some of his toys for a while. Joey went back to Steven’s house right at 3:00, but no one was home. Joey didn’t think a lot about it; maybe it was just a mistake. The next day Steven came by Joey’s house. Steven started to tell Joey about how that his dad was a famous archeologist and that they have all this really cool treasure at their house. Joey couldn’t wait to see it. But later that evening Joey asked his mom if he could go see the treasure, but found out from his mom that Steven’s dad really isn’t an archeologist at all.

All of this was starting to bother Joey, but he wasn’t sure what to do. He prayed and asked the Lord to help him to know what to do. He wanted to be Steven’s friend, but he also didn’t want to be lied to. A couple of days later Joey was over at Steven’s house and Steven was showing Joey a large scar on his leg. “And then as I was swimming in the ocean this huge shark came up from out nowhere and attacked me!” “A large what?” Steven’s mom said from the other room. “Well, OK so it wasn’t such a large shark,” Steven said. Mom said, “Try not a shark at all, you fell off of your bike last summer.”

“Why are you telling Joey such a story?” his mom asked. “Well, I guess that I wanted to impress Joey with a lot of neat things so that he would be my friend,” said Steven. “You don’t have to impress me,” said Joey. “I just want to get to know you how you are. I would rather know the truth than stories that are made up.” “I’m sorry,” said Steven. “That’s OK,” said Joey, “let’s start from scratch, now what happened to your leg?”

It’s important to always tell the truth. The Bible says that God’s promises are Yes and Amen. That just means that you can always count on them to be the truth no matter what. Praise the Lord that He is always truthful with us.

• Have you ever had someone not keep a promise? What was that like?
• What do you think that Steven learned in this story?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Amen: ”So be it; let it be done.”


Day Three
Elijah and the Widow
Text: 1 Kings 17:14 - “For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’” Also read 1 Kings 17:8-16

There hadn’t been any rain in Israel for a long time. This meant that a lot of people got low on food because the crops wouldn’t do very well without water. But one of God’s promises is that He will always provide for our needs. God was going to provide for Elijah and bless a poor widow at the same time. God told Elijah to go to the widow and she would provide for him. When he got there he asked for some water and asked for some bread. Then the widow said that she didn’t have anything. Only a little bit of flour and oil in a jar. She believed that she was going to die because she didn’t have anything for her son or herself.

But Elijah believed in God’s word. God had said that He was going to provide for Elijah through this widow. So Elijah told the widow that the Lord had said that her flour and oil would not be used up until rain had returned. She obeyed and made some food for Elijah. And God did exactly as He had promised. He provided for her needs, her son’s needs and Elijah’s needs. God was faithful to provide for her just as He had promised.

In Ephesians chapter 3 the Bible says that God “…is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” God did that for the widow and Elijah in our Bible story. He can certainly do that for us. God has promised to take care of our needs. We only need to trust in Him to provide for us. So often He will not only keep His promises, but also go way beyond them in blessing us.

• Did Elijah ever doubt that God would do what He promised to do?
• What ways have you seen God provide for you and your family?
• The next time that you have a need, what will you do?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
flour and oil: ingredients used to make bread.
exceedingly abundantly: more than you could have ever thought of or hoped for. This is how God blesses us.


Day Four
The Promise is for Kids Too!
Text: Acts 2:39 -“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Also read Acts 1:4-8

Before Jesus left to go to be with the Father he made a very special promise to His disciples. He told them to stay in Jerusalem because He was going to send to them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would be a comforter to them, a teacher and He would lead them into all truth. He also told them that when the Holy Spirit came upon them that they would receive power to live the Christian life and to be a witness to others. What this meant was that the Holy Spirit would make such a difference in their lives that people would see it and want to know how they can come to Jesus.

God’s promise came true and the disciples did receive the Holy Spirit. This was on a special day called the Day of Pentecost. You can read about it in Acts chapter 2. After Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit he preached a wonderful sermon and over 3,000 people got saved. One of the things that Peter shared in his sermon is found in Acts 2:39. He said that this promise of the Holy Spirit was for everyone, including children.

When we believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of our hearts. We can also pray and ask the Lord to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we can do what is right and be a witness for Jesus to others. The Holy Spirit can make such a difference in our lives that others will be attracted to Jesus because of Him. If you would like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, all you have to do is ask (Luke 11:13).

• How do you think Peter felt after 3,000 people came to Jesus that day?
• How does it make you feel knowing that God has made some very special promises to you?
• If you haven’t already, pray and ask the Lord to fill you with His Spirit so that you can be a witness for Him.

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
The Promise: Jesus’ promise to the disciples that he would send to the Holy Spirit to help them to live for Him and be His Holy Spirit: Third person of the Trinity.


Day Five
I’m Never Going to Leave You!
Text: Matthew 28:20 -“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Also read Acts 18:7-11

Today is the day of the funeral for Katie’s grandmother. Katie and her grandmother were very close and she was going to miss her an awful lot. They got to spend a lot of wonderful afternoons together. Katie felt very alone and sad. Dad knew that Katie was sad today and was taking the news of her grandmother dying very hard. So dad came into Katie’s room before they left to go to the funeral and asked her how she was doing.

“I’m OK,” Katie said. “I just kind of feel lonely, I’m going to miss her very much.” “I understand how you feel,” dad said, “I’m going to miss her very much too.” “Daddy?” Katie said, “Will it ever get easier to live without grandma?” “I suppose that you will always miss her,” dad replied, “but we know that she is in heaven with Jesus and that we will get to see her again some day. In the meantime, Jesus will help you because He is always with you.”

“One day Jesus had to leave the disciples and go to the Father,” dad continued. “The disciples were sad and were going to miss Jesus. But Jesus made them a promise and told them that He would always be with them no matter what. We have that same promise today. Jesus is with us, in fact, He lives inside of our hearts. So when we miss someone that we love, we know that Jesus is always there for us. He gives His Holy Spirit, who is a comforter to those who are hurting.

Jesus knows that you are hurting Katie and He wants you to know that He will be with you always and will help you.”

• Why do you suppose it is important to know God’s promises?
• How do His promises help you to deal with tough things in your life?
• When you are sad or afraid who do you turn to?

Kid’s Prayer Time
There is a lot that we can be thankful for. This week when you pray thank the Lord for all of His wonderful promises. Also, we can thank Him for making sure that every one of His promises come true. He is so faithful, we can always trust in the Lord.

Memory Verse
First and Second Grade
“And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

Third Grade and Above
"And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

Luke 2:26